Pity Of The Day: Obama Supporter Kills Pennsylvania Blog

Yes, Virginia, an Obama supporter/ elected official (a Dem Party Regional Coordinator, no less) can --and will- kill your blog.

Farewell

I am ending The Pennsylvania Progressive. Over the course of 23 months we published about 3,800 articles and 435 more at Berks Democrats. I attended many campaign events, read countless books and websites and too many public meetings than I care to count. I'd like to thank our readers and the commenters who made this a virtual community of sorts. I particularly want to thank our writers.

The blog has died because of one woman, a Democratic Committee woman from Pike Township, Berks County who filed a complaint with Typepad, my host, that I used her name without permission. I use people's names all the time, it's impossible not to. These are public figures with no legal expectation of privacy. This woman was angry that I exposed the treachery she and her husband used to smear several Democratic candidates and officials. She objected to my linking her to her blog even though, when she created it, she sent an email announcement to several hundred people. That identity was no secret.

To continue The Pennsylvania Progressive I would have to cease using anyone's name, as subjects, sources or any other reason. I won't write half assed articles that way. The only other alternative is moving the blog and beginning anew. After two years of work and effort on this that's devastating to face. It takes too long to build a blog and, at 56, I'm not prepared to do that again. I could relocate to an offshore server where these issues would never arise again but that means hiring someone to create the website. The business model and funds for that don't exist. Not one paid advertisement appeared on this blog in 23 months. Democrats and Pennsylvanians have not supported this blog and there is no prospect they will. It doesn't make financial sense to invest money in such a venture even if I had it.

So this is farewell. I loved doing this and will miss arising every morning and deciding what topics and news to discuss. I'll miss driving around Pennsylvania covering the campaigns and supporting our candidates. I was headed to the Pittsburgh area this week to work with a Congressional candidate there and to Gettysburg to finish an article on private development of the battlefield. I regret not being able to continue my work.

I'll continue to write. A friend suggested I do an anthology of the most important blog articles and I rather like that idea. I also think I'll do a book about blogging, its trials and tribulations, the stories behind the stories. I even have a working title for that one, "The Nefarious Blogger." Aside from that there's a good bit of litigation ahead so that will also keep me busy.

I want to close by thanking the family and friends who did support this blog financially. It wouldn't have existed without your support. It's a shame Democrats refused to join you in this.

Update: Thanks for all the emails and invitations to join other blogs. I now have an attorney working on this matter and I'm going to spend some downtime figuring out what to do next. I have a lot of thinking to do and we're now fearful of what these Obama supporters might do next. I've never seen a campaign breed such hatred and vitriol at those not supporting their candidate. What is it about Barack Obama which is causing this meltdown among his supporters?

It can happen here.

Never underestimate the power of the recently beguiled to use any and every means possible to stifle free speech if it furthers their own agenda chosen candidate.

Truly heavy sigh.

UPDATE: Thank goodness for Google's cache system!

Ahem...

Out of Control Obama Volunteers

One of my chief concerns about Barack Obama are the out of control volunteers turning people off. I wrote an article a couple weeks ago about some of them and I understand the campaign has little or no control over these people. This is the flip side of a grassroots operation which is largely volunteer driven. One local Berks County volunteer is especially out of control and this is about her and her blog Pennsylvania For Change, a pro Obama website. It is written by several people including Cats R Fly Fishin' (Censored by Typepad.com) and Allen Minch, both of whom have commented here. I finally banned ------ (censored by Typepad and subject to litigation) for repeatedly posting false and malicious comments as smears. She knows the facts and ignores them so she can spread her vile rumors.

People like this are hurting Barack Obama and I'm afraid they'll cost us a general election should he be the nominee. Can you imagine these folks trying to persuade swing voters? There's an article on their blog even showing one of their writers using a non union print shop to make Obama posters. Oops. There go the union voters.

Then there's this article which must have been written by an elitist autocrat:

"The vast majority of the voting republic is either too ignorant, or too set in their ways and close-minded to make a fair assessment to make their choice…"
"Why should the outcome of these people who are most likely much less informed be held at a higher standard than people who are most likely in the know.

Now obviously this doesn’t apply to all people, but i would say its a good chunk 70-80%."

Wow, 70-80% of the people shouldn't be allowed to vote because they're too ignorant. It's difficult for me to digest that this was written by an Obama supporter. Not just a supporter but one who got his picture taken with the candidate this week:


(censored by Typepad.com) has been sending emails and leaving comments here (cats r fly fishin) accusing me of being paid by the Clinton campaign. She knows this isn't factual, she knows it isn't true, she has no concern for facts of any kind and now has been banned for leaving false and malicious comments. The fact is she and her husband have a habit of using false information to smear fellow Democrats. A year ago they used false information faxed to them from the Berks County Office of Commissioners by County Commissioner (Republican) Mark Scott to smear incumbent Democrat Tom Gajewski. The Wentz's sent the information out via email along with copies of the faxes.
I have the faxes and the fax number for the Berks County Commissioners is right on the page as required by law. Mark Scott denied being the source but Lou Wentz has acknowledged they came from a Republican in an email.

I'll recap the controversy for a second. Berks County is one of the top four counties in the nation for farmland preservation. This was a major issue in last year's commissioners election when Gajewski lost his seat to Christian Leinbach, the Home Builders Association candidate. We lost the majority of the commissioners and now the Republican Board is trying to privatize county services, throw good people out of good jobs and are sitting as the Elections Board in a major election year. This email helped derail Gajewski's re-election by accusing him of accepting $90,000 from the HBA. It was a false smear. They knew it came from Mark Scott, the minority Republican on the Board but they used it anyway. The information was easily debunked with a visit to the County Elections Services to examine the campaign finance reports or with a phone call to Gajewski.

Mark Scott denied having sent the faxes when I confronted him with one of them this morning. He also denied knowing Lou Wentz even though both are very involved in trout. Scott owns a trout farm and Wentz is heavily involved in PA trout. For good measure they took a swipe at me in that smear email also and have yet to apologize.

Cats left a comment on my first post on Sunday's Obama event in Harrisburg. After having gone around accusing me of bias, for being paid by Hillary (false) and leaving comments to that effect here on my blog, she berated me for not posting video. The event hadn't even begun so there was nothing to record... When I did begin posting video during the event, instead of realizing she was wrong and apologizing she, again, posted comments (twice) accusing me of being on the Clinton payroll.

FEC rules require all expenditures be reported and when this quarterly report is filed by Hillary's campaign Cats will not find any such payment to me or anyone else I know because we were NOT paid by or worked for Hillary's campaign. Why she persists in making these malicious claims on a repeated basis is beyond me. One look at her blog however and one can gain some perspective.

Are these the people we want doing phone banking and canvassing in the fall?

Update: The blogger who has publicly revealed her identity and made no attempt to conceal her identity on her own blog and at TPZoo.com has filed a complaint against me with Typepad, the host of The Pennsylvania Progressive. This woman freely and opnly volunteered to me and two other individuals on January 26, 2008 that she was blogging at TPZoo. It only takes a few seconds to determine her blogger identity if you know anything about the woman.

She never said she blogged anonymously or made any statement that the information she provided was at all confidential. In fact she freely and openly discusses facts about herself and her husband which clearly indicate her identity. She has made no effort to conceal her identity on her own blog and even linked to this article discussing it. When she told me she was blogging and where she also told others, did not say the information was off the record and none of us, to my knowledge, presumed it was secret. There is no presumption of confidentiality, it must be clearly expressed. She failed to do so.

In her blogging persona she left a comment on my blog seeking to damage my reputation and factually wrong. She knew the facts to be otherwise but chose to make public false information in a malicious attempt to damage my reputation with my readers. Now she is seeking to damage my relationship with Typepad. They have ordered me to remove her name from this article and I will do so pending legal action.

This is further action taken by a woman who is criminally harassing me with false public statements. If she is so concerned with, after the fact, trying to keep her real identity secret, did she link to this article and inform her readers they could discover her actual identity here? She has made no attempts in her own blog articles to remain confidential. No one could reasonable conclude she blogged confidentially.

Best bar bet in the world: Delilah didn't do it.
Judges 16:19-- And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.